20150120 My Gallery

hans christian hansen, architect: gasværksvejens skole / school, copenhagen...

Sat, 22 Aug 2015 12:45:02 GMT

link to full size image (4057 x 4558px).

gasværksvejens skole / school, vesterbro, copenhagen 1969-1971.
architect: hans christian hansen, 1901-1978, working for the copenhagen municipal architects department.

schoolyard facade in reflected light.

this is a tough building, and a far cry from hansen's previous school in leafy suburban copenhagen. whether you can be too tough for an old working class neighbourhood is a valid question; the woman who runs the school called it robust when I met her, indicating that was a good thing.

a small discovery: the basic massing and organisation in plan is identical to erik gunnar asplund's carl johanskolan in gothenburg, sweden (1915-1924). and not by accident, I am sure.

there is a 19th century main building across the yard, you can catch the reflection of its red brick walls in the windows. hansen's addition is a four storey concrete box with classrooms and a smaller one for the gym. the classrooms are on double-loaded corridors that provide a deep plan good for a tight budget, but also a dark interior, questionable at best as social spaces.

but hansen had made an art of working on a budget, and his teaching spaces are generous and bright, high ceilings everywhere.

artful too is the draping of the two buildings in a pagoda-like roofscape of cheap corrugated roofing sheets, recalling local industrial architecture like the drying sheds of old Danish tile works. the corrugated sheets were a stable of hansen's vocabulary, but he was not alone in celebrating this most humble of materials.

it is in fact one of the things uniting an otherwise scattered group of architects on the left, a group I hope to show with the next building that hansen was a part of, and a group we are going to be exploring over the coming weeks.

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the comments I have added to some of my hans chr. hansen photos can be read together as a kind of mangled, yet surprisingly brief essay on hansen. repetitious and opinionated, it reflects the writer above his subject, but until someone does some serious research on hansen, a complete lack of competition makes me immune to criticism. enjoy :)

01. introduction, amager 1966.
02. the engineer as ideal, hansen's pre-war architecture, sundholm 1939.
03. the church he didn't build. war and the return to tradition, 1942-1944.
04. following fisker. wartime housing, hulgårds plads 1943.
05. the architect finding himself in a kindergarten, skydebanen 1948.
06. developing the restless section. hanssted school 1954.
07. early industrial. nyborggade transformer 1958.
08. the brutalist, bellahøj 1961.
09. perfect self-confidence, ringbo nursing home 1961.
10. perfect idiosyncrasy. ringbo bell tower 1961.
11. the masterpiece, bremerholm 1962.
12. on the fine art of knowing when to be a backdrop. svanemølle 1966.
13. industrialised construction, a first response. svanemølle 1966.
14. concrete charm, bellahøj gas regulator 1967.
15. late irreverence. gasværksvejen school 1969.

the hans chr. hansen set.

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DSC00608, Copenhagen, Denmark

Sat, 22 Aug 2015 12:43:57 GMT

Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark, is situated on the east coast of the Danish island of Zealand, the largest of Denmark’s approximately 500 islands. The entire country is in size, one half the area of Maine. The name Copenhagen or “Kobenhavn” means “Merchant Harbor” and it is believed that the city was founded in 1167 by Bishop Absalon, at the spot where fishermen and merchants gathered to market their goods.

See set comments for “Copenhagen Denmark Overview”.

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vandkunsten, architects: torpedohallen, naval shipyard conversion, holmen,...

Sat, 22 Aug 2015 12:43:21 GMT

torpedohallen, conversion of naval shipyard building to housing, holmen copenhagen, 1953 / 2000-2003.
architects: tegnestuen vandkunsten.

after 14 years as an architect at vandkunsten, I recently decided to quit my job and thought these february photos of the torpedo boat hall conversion, the very first project I worked on, would be a good way to mark that rather momentous decision.

for now, I am going to be spending some time with my children, but if anyone hears of a job for an experienced architect in greater copenhagen, let me know :)

www.vandkunsten.com

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kay fisker, mødrehjælpen, copenhagen 1953-1955

Sat, 22 Aug 2015 12:41:17 GMT

mødrehjælpen, administration and accommodation, copenhagen, denmark 1953-1955.
architect: kay fisker, 1893-1965.

for hagen and boris. view from the west. stitch of two. autumn.

a late fisker work down the street from where I live and a fine example of modernism inserted into a pre-modern context. fisker always drew solitary old trees in his pencil renderings. I think this shows what he had in mind.

this photo was uploaded with a CC license and may be used free of charge and in any way you see fit.
if possible, please name photographer "SEIER+SEIER". if not, don't.

the fisker set

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vandkunsten, architects: torpedohallen, naval shipyard conversion, holmen,...

Sat, 22 Aug 2015 12:38:38 GMT

torpedohalltorpedohallen, conversion of naval shipyard building to housing, holmen copenhagen, 1953 / 2000-2003.
architects: tegnestuen vandkunsten.

I uploaded some very bleak february photos of torpedohallen, the first building I worked on at vandkunsten; it felt like a fitting way to mark that I left the office after 14 years.

here are a few shots from around five o'clock on a june morning to show you another aspect of the house. the sun had been up for a while and light was coming from the northeast. seeing something you know well under a new light can be a revelation, which I suppose could also be said to be the point of the winter photos.

www.vandkunsten.com

this photo was uploaded with a CC license and may be used free of charge and in any way you see fit.
if possible, please name photographer "SEIER+SEIER".
if not, don't.

do not copy texts, tags and comments.

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